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24 January 2017

As the World Economic Forum in Davos concluded last week, a number of themes emerged which have a direct impact on the talent agenda and global mobility matters. There's no doubt the overriding theme in Davos was the unprecedented uncertainty in the current global environment. Rising geopolitical tensions, the coming UK and EU negotiations on Brexit, and significant uncertainty resulting from the new US administration top the worry list of global leaders. Nevertheless, our 20th annualCEO surveyreflects a rising sense of short and medium-term optimism on the part of CEOs. US CEOs are especially confident about growth.

The challenge is whether this confidence can be translated into business results, as the long-term challenges above coalesce on the global stage.

One theme that remains constant is that business leaders are continuing focus on thetalent agenda. Despite obvious opportunities resulting from technology ─ including robotics and artificial intelligence ─CEOs recognize that the human talent is the one distinctive element that will drive their business forward in the future.

They see the value of marrying technology with uniquely-human capabilities. The skills they consider most important are those that can’t be replicated by machines. CEOs rank creativity, innovation and emotional intelligence as some of most valued skills in the workforce ─ but also the hardest to find.

So how do these themes relate to talent deployment and global mobility? As I've said before, innovation and creativity will not be driven from behind a virtual reality headset or through endless video conferences. Innovation and breakthrough thinking comes from the human interaction that happens with face-to-face collaboration and the sharing of diverse ideas of people from different perspectives and diversity.There is simply no substitute for the value of global mobility experiences─ for both employees and organizations.

Therefore, despite the rise of the machines, global mobility will continue to be an important tool for building workforce capability with the skills to complement emerging technology.

The results of our PwC survey show that CEOs recognize the need to create greater talent diversity in their workforce through more global mobility and changing employment structures that facilitate talent mobility.

Global mobility teams should strive to make their organization’s movement of talent across borders as seamless as frictionless is possible. Organizations that can successfully do this will create a significant competitive advantage by developing a more diverse workforce that can feed the innovation and creativity needs of their organizations.

Comments

Smaller businesses can compete with large businesses by being more swift and agile, and be responding to change faster. Information technology can improve your company's efficiency and decrease human error by developing automated processes....

By giving your talent a voice, and paying attention to their feedback, you’ll be able to hold on to them for longer, in satisfactory roles. A consistent feedback culture empowers your talented employees to grow with the organization, and it makes it easier for you to know what their drivers and values are...

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